Employee Engagement in Sustainability. Nadine Exter, The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility

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1 Employee Engagement in Sustainability Nadine Exter, The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility

2 What is engagement in sustainability? Meet Jo de Silva Cranfield University

3 Why is Jo so engaged? Her individual characteristics: Motivated by purpose Loves being useful Adventurous, brave Clever, bright Strong Clear in what she wants, entrepreneurial Cranfield University

4 Why is Jo so engaged? Cultural characteristics at Arup that enable her to flourish: A clear social purpose Flexible Entrepreneurial Empowering Open culture Learning/knowledge sharing Long term thinking Cranfield University

5 The individual and the group fit together! Cranfield University

6 Engagement is. Appreciating we are all individuals choosing to join and contribute to the group (the company) With an enabling environment where employees can see, experiment, connect, take ownership and contribute to sustainable success Cranfield University

7 Because It is not the job of employees to become engaged in your interest/specialty Nor is it your job to inflict sustainability on them Is it about developing a social norm where sustainability is part of normal working, such as making a coffee, saying hello to co-workers? Cranfield University

8 Tell me What do you mean when you say engagement? Are you trying to change behaviour, or enable the right behaviours and create a social norm? Are you focusing on outcomes or cause? What are the outcomes you want? Do you want employees to own their behaviour, or be nudged & pushed into behaving sustainably? Optimist or pessimist? Cranfield University

9 Creating sustainable mindset and behaviours: Culture and social norms Cranfield University

10 Consider: An organisation brings together individuals to cooperate, communicate, coordinate, prioritise and take action in order to achieve a common goal And creates its own social norm, which can be responsible or irresponsible. Organisations are social arrangements for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals. Buchanan & Huczynski (1997). Organisational behaviour. Prentice Hall. Cranfield University

11 Social norms Social norms are the commonly accepted behaviours and assumptions: Expected modes of behaviour and beliefs that are established either formally or informally by the group. Develop from standard ways of operating (systems, processes), habits, assumptions, common identity and purpose, relationships, leadership examples, values and behaviours Jones & Gerrard, Cranfield University

12 Managing social norms with organisational culture A system exists for managing social norms the way we do things around here This is organisational culture The collective behaviour of individuals, based on shared assumptions, habits, motives, systems, processes (etc) A control devise for managing behaviour Helps employees make sense of things Provides as sense of identity, and reinforces values Cranfield University

13 Culture We know culture is working when: There is a common purpose, that shows the business is an intrinsic part of society The organisation has a long-term focus Emotional engagement of organisational values occurs, stimulating motivation, encouraging fair self or peer-regulation The organisation embraces working in partnerships, crossing borders and addressing social/environmental issues beyond their direct borders Innovation through a broader purpose Self-organisation because the company assumes it can trust employees and rely on relationships as well as rules and regulations. Moss Kanter (2011). How great companies think differently. Harvard Business Review, November. Cranfield University

14 Why do we care about culture? Its about behaviour which makes us (un)successful: The products we choose to develop (PPI mis-selling, 2000% interest loans) How we decide to act at work (bullying, stealing, treating customers with distain, stifling, boring) How we utilise the resources of the firm (inefficiencies, supplier relationships, low employee productivity) How we utilise the resources of the world (water, materials, pollution) How we decide to disrespect the social norms (break regulations, bribe, breach trust, harm reputation) Cranfield University

15 Experiencing organisational culture Cranfield University

16 Impact of culture: Barclays in 2012 LIBOR, EURIBOR scandals, PPI mis-selling, not complying with government sanctions, CEO removed, trust broken the business practices for which Barclays has rightly been criticised were shaped predominantly by its culture The Salz Review, 2013 Cranfield University

17 Barclays in 2013 It was an opportunity for renewal. We initiated a large-scale culture change programme change the way we do business, so that our purpose and values are central to our culture. Jon Harding, Head of Culture and Values, Barclays, 2013 Cranfield University

18 Cultural norms that encourage sustainable behaviour 1. Managers are able to live personal values 2. Systems and leaders encourage the right rewards and recognition 3. The organisation and employees can learn, through knowledge sharing, partnering, stakeholder engagement, by being involved in the business and being able to ask questions, encouraged to identify and solve problems, outside-in view of the firm 4. Values are clear and embedded into company practices, reporting, rewards, symbols, targets, common language, identity and stories of success. See Exter (2014). Embedding sustainability into mindset and behaviours of employees. Occasional paper from the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility. Cranfield University

19 Creating sustainable mindset and behaviours: Group values and behaviours Cranfield University

20 Group values and behaviours Shared meaning of future vision and purpose of business Formal ideology (ethical underpinning, including values) Behaviours (incl. habits & rituals) real Interpersonal communications Climate (symbols, artefacts etc) Internal reputations Recruitment and socialisation Dominant real group values Psychological contract norms, including expected degree of values congruence Demographics Formal leadership styles External reputations as driver for behaviour Collective identity, objectives and sub-cultures Behaviours (incl. habits & rituals) expected, actively reinforced Embedded assumptions Historical context influence Formal management styles Tangible and social rewards Cranfield University

21 In my experience Many culture change or sustainability programmes focus on: developing a set of values that underpin the ethical beliefs of the collective and then develop a set of relevant expected behaviours that are cascaded throughout processes, procedures, rewards, training, leadership, control systems etc. Activities are then connected to these, demonstrating their place and contribution Cranfield University

22 Values and behaviours Values: the ideals shared by the collective, based on ethical, religious, or spiritual foundations. The guiding principles of what is normal and what is not. Behaviours: the actions employees take guided by those values. Behaviours/actions can reinforce values, or be contrary to them(real vs. written values). Cranfield University

23 Values (1) Personal values: help us define our beliefs and principles. The boundaries for what we will and will not do. Tend to be fixed Work helps to reinforce those values, or conflict with them (causing comfort or discomfort) We look for activities that reinforce our values. If from work, this can increase motivation and loyalty sustainability-related activities can reinforce personal values if clear and connected Cranfield University

24 Values (2) Work values: the guiding principles of how we deliver to corporate purpose. The foundations for behaviour. A clear purpose helps define the reason for work, the reason to cooperate. It also explains why the values are important, how they guide us at work Individuals seek purpose from work, even if subconsciously, and congruence of work values with their own. Thus, clear and relevant values help employees understand why sustainability is normal Cranfield University

25 Our focus for behaviours: Proximate vs. evolutionary behaviours: Proximate: immediate triggers such as cultural, values, incentives, learning, values Evolutionary: biological/species triggers such as discounting the future, social imitation Cranfield University

26 Behaviours (1) Personal behaviours: the actions we take, decide is congruent to our values and sense of self Tend to be more flexible, can change with situation (with good or bad results) We learn behaviours : observation, training, self-determination, social desirability (copying) We use behaviours to interpret reality how serious is the company about sustainability? Cues: Resource commitments made Alignment with core business Emotional engagement of others and leaders Justice, transparency, fairness Degree of embeddedness of sustainability in strategy, language, targets, reporting, communications Cranfield University

27 Behaviours (2) Work behaviours: the boundaries of acceptable & rewarded behaviour Need pro-social and pro-sustainability behaviours Many companies don t define acceptable behaviours these are learned in socialisation Some define broad behaviours, not relevant for everyone. Others are to rigid, controlling Behaviours should represent the way we treat each other and customers, what we consider responsible and irresponsible, what will delivery the strategy and what will harm it Systems should be developed from the behaviours reward systems, training, sign-off and approvals, leadership etc But often systems are developed separate from desired behaviours, and can encourage the wrong behaviours. Cranfield University

28 Influences on behaviour Cultural norms: religion, socio-political, social movements, socioeconomic Demographics of group: age, gender, race, religion etc. Unbalanced demographics can encourage certain behaviours Learning approach: social exchange theory, social learning theory, self-determination theory, theory of planned behaviour Corporate actions: emotional wellbeing, diversity and demographics, leadership, clarity of desired group values and behaviours Unintended cues: reward systems rewarding incorrectly (see Dan Pink), commitment by leaders, fairness of power, transparency of decisionmaking etc Cranfield University

29 Responses to sustainability specifically 1. Denialism: literal denial: straight out denial, minds closed mis-information: on purpose or not casual denial: ignore the facts by finding weakness in arguments de-problemise: to big to deal with, avoid wishful thinking: someone else will save us 2. Negation: say it is not, to avoid anxiety and loss 3. Disavowal: to big and scary to deal with, so minimise issue Weintrobe (2013). Engaging with climate change. Routledge. Cranfield University

30 Creating sustainable mindset and behaviours: Engagement! Cranfield University

31 1. Embed sustainability into social norms 1. With HR, diagnose your current and desired social norm (values and behaviours) 2. Identify if any enablers and barriers to sustainability becoming normal 3. Agree priority of what to address and what to work around 4. If needed, work with HR to provide opportunities to promote desired social norms (behaviours) and reinforce corporate values Cranfield University

32 2. Your direct activities 1. Develop your operational plan with social norms in mind (current and new) what activities need to change to resonate with social norms? 2. If necessary, run an engagement in sustainability programme: Identify infrastructure that can help integrate sustainability into social norms (rewards, communications, reporting, leadership, targets etc) Identify champions, social intrapreneurs, leaders and godparents who can talk and walk sustainability socialise sustainability starting with a group of passionate employees Cranfield University

33 3. A process for embedding sustainability into social norms Cranfield University

34 Example: a champions network (seeing is believing) Inform SMT approval and support for a network Nominate individuals, collate interested employees. Approach, discuss and explore possible roles Communicate on intranet, invite employees to attend, give examples Interest Co-create taskforces around interested themes Share stories of work already done and individuals involved Have SMT discuss at monthly team meeting, giving permission and praise Start an easy-win activity, promote progress Engage Sense-make: open for a discussions, story-telling, case studies Experiment: try&test days, buddying, volunteering Change behaviour: formal R&R, line management, job descriptions, rewards and recognition Cranfield University

35 Group Discussion: Using one company as an example: 1. What is your business purpose? Is it pro-sustainability? 2. What are your social norms and are they fit for purpose? Values the guiding principles Behaviours the right actions to deliver strategy 3. What of my own activities can I change to work with the right social norms? 4. Develop your engagement plan One activity for each platform Cranfield University

36 Q & A Cranfield University